Joe Hanrahan has done quite a few one-man shows in his time. For the artistic director and co-founder of The Midnight Company, tackling multiple characters and taking on an audience on his own is nothing new. But for his latest one-person play, The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, on stage at The Kranzberg Black Box Theatre May 4–20, he is breaking tradition a bit. We caught up with Hanrahan ahead of the run to hear all about it.
For those who are unfamiliar, can you tell us a bit about this story?
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It’s based on a novel by the playwright, Celeste Lecesne, and the play is called The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. And Leonard Pelkey is kind of the central character of the show, but you never see him. When the play starts, he has been reported missing by the woman and teenage girl that he lives with in this small town on the New Jersey Shore. It’s a blue-collar town, and Leonard hasn’t been in town long, and he’s a real flamboyant, theatrical, in-your-face kid. He dresses like he wants, does what he wants. So he’s raised the attention of a lot of people in town. A lot of the middle-aged folks love him. The woman he lives with runs a beauty salon, and all the women there love him because he gives them fashion tips and makeup tips and really helps them out. They all love him. And then. of course, he attends a drama school in this little town and they love him, but the high school bullies don’t. And that’s kind of where the things are happening. It’s a one-person show, and I play eight different characters in the play. The main one is a detective, and it’s his job to find out where Leonard is. And in doing so, he talks to some different people in the town. At The Midnight Company, we like to very outwardly say, “We don’t do message plays.” We don’t preach about racism or sexism or this or that. I don’t think it’s our job to try to solve the world’s problems like that. But this show does have a message of tolerance and understanding and acceptance of other people. This kid, in the short time he was in this town, had an incredible impact on all the people—but the message comes along with a really good story.
As you mentioned, it’s a one-man show. Tell me a little bit about what it’s been like living in this story on your own and crafting these characters.
The thing is, if you take one glance at [The Midnight Company’s] past production, you can tell I have done far too many one-person shows. I’ve done a whole bunch of them, and I keep running into good stories. I’ve done theater forever, and in my professional life I was in advertising and I traveled a lot. So I always didn’t have a lot of time to do ensemble rehearsals and things. So one-person shows were a good way to keep doing theater. I really have done too many, but I know how to do it and I enjoy doing it. The one thing I’ve learned in this play, in terms of the craft, I mean, is that I have to work on making sure that each of these eight characters are distinct. They have different body postures, different types of voices and attitudes, to try to distinguish them. So that’s an acting challenge. But I have found, getting in the middle of these plays, that when you do this, your empathy really builds for something that you really probably didn’t think about before. I did The Grapes of Wrath several years ago, and I remember, for about three months after, if somebody came up and asked for money on the street, I’d give ’em whatever I had. I was just so conscious of thinking about poor people and how they struggled to survive as they tried to go west in the story. It’s the same way [in this play,] too. I have empathy for Leonard. Trying to be yourself and live like you want in a society that may not like what you’re doing or who you are shows great courage, and it should elicit great compassion from people. And that certainly strikes to a lot of things happening today and the political pressures on transgender folks and others.
As you’ve been working with these characters, have you been drawn to any of them in particular as a favorite or one you most identify with?
Well, my comfort zone is the detective. He’s just a guy trying to understand these different things he’s getting into, and I can relate to that. He’s a cop, but he is a small town cop, so not a big, macho guy. That’s my comfort zone. But the other characters really draw me in, too. I mean, there’s the total opposite of this cop, a guy named Buddy Howard who runs the school of drama and dance in town. He’s gay, but he’s a closeted, married gay man. His wife is a dance teacher, and they run the school together…The most challenging character for me is the teenage girl who lived with Leonard, and it’s not just because she’s a teenage girl. I’m doing okay with the three more middle-aged women, but the teenage girl and her attitude and just someone that young living now…that attitude is something I can’t totally grasp. I’m just trying to build that character around a couple of things that will make her stand out and get her message across. Most of the characters are fun in their own way.
What’s it been like working with your director, Alicen Moser, on this piece?
It’s been very, very good. I’ve worked with Alicen a couple times before. I’ve directed her a couple times in shows for The Midnight Company, and I will be directing her in our July show. She’s very smart and has really come up with a lot of very specific things that have helped my characters in terms of just physical things and just attitudes and accents. She has a really good grasp of what we need to do, but at the same time, she’s had great patience to let me work through it.
This play was written by one of the co-founders of The Trevor Project. Tell me about how The Midnight Company plans to highlight the organization during the run.
We investigated a few things. I’ve talked to their office a couple of times. They’re a hardworking office with a press office there that I think is really overwhelmed. I was hoping they could maybe reach out in the St. Louis area a little bit, but I’m gonna try to do it myself. I just did a Facebook post on all the theater sites to draw attention and basically say that we want folks to be aware of this organization. It’s certainly going to be in our program. And then, we’ve been in business for 26 years, and in all that time, I’ve only done two curtain speeches. We don’t like curtain speeches. But I’m going to do a post-show curtain speech, mention The Trevor Project, and call [the audience’s] attention to it on the program. They may not need it now. They may not know anybody you need it now, but just stay aware of it just in case.
Who do you hope comes to experience this story?
You always hope that some folks who are struggling with understanding or living with some things would be there and at least get some comfort from it, you know? That’s always a big goal. But this show, I think, is very well-written, and I think it really, really tugs at people. I’m just hoping everybody will come away from it with a little more understanding and tolerance.
Is there anything else you’d really like folks to know about this performance?
I say I’ve done too many one-man shows, but I think people can dismiss these kinds of shows pretty easily. Everybody is aware of and a lot of people go to these big shows and musicals and big sets and multiple characters. And those are all great—they’re all part of theater. But when these [smaller] shows are done right and an audience is willing to go with it, a whole horizon can open for them. I hope when people come see this show, they go, Oh, I saw a show with eight different characters. I just hope that the story rings true. That’s what it’s really all about. That’s the most important thing.
The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey runs May 4–20 at The Kranzberg Black Box Theatre. Tickets are available from MetroTix.
